A nervous system perspective
Most teams I work with tell me a similar story.
There is too much to do and not enough time to do it.
People feel stretched thin. Creativity is harder to access. Collaboration feels clunky. Even the simplest decisions take longer than they should.
When I look beneath the surface, the problem is rarely a lack of talent or motivation. It is that people are working in ways their nervous systems simply cannot sustain.
Design asks a lot of us. We move between ambiguity, emotion, complex systems, conflicting needs and organisational pressures every day. We are expected to be curious and imaginative while also hitting deadlines and producing clarity for others. We listen deeply to people’s stories, sometimes painful ones, then switch instantly to strategy, facilitation or delivery. Our internal tempo often becomes dictated by the pace of the organisation rather than the natural rhythms that help humans thrive.
Over time, the nervous system starts to hold the cost.
1. The pace is too fast for the body to process
Many design teams exist in cycles of urgency. Short sprints. Rapid pivots. Constant reprioritising. The body treats this like ongoing threat. Adrenaline becomes the background hum. Our ability to sense subtle cues, track our intuition and think systemically narrows. We move into survival physiology rather than creative physiology.
A dysregulated body cannot do good sensemaking.
2. Emotional load goes unnamed
Design is relational. We sit with tension, frustration, disappointment, possibility and human complexity all day. Yet very few workplaces acknowledge the emotional labour of design research, co-design or facilitation. When emotional load accumulates without recovery, the nervous system becomes braced. People find it harder to stay present, patient or open. Meetings feel heavier than they need to be because the load has nowhere to go.
A personal story
I am no stranger to burnout. Early in my career, I spent years working in strong contexts like child protection, homelessness and disability. These were systems shaped by deep histories, heavy caseloads and layers of entrenched complexity. Change was slow. Structures were rigid. And every day, people were doing their best within environments that weren’t designed for human wellbeing.
Over time, I started to notice something. There were certain behaviours that showed up when people were stretched beyond their capacity, and they weren’t isolated moments. They were cultural patterns. Hypervigilance. A constant scanning for what might go wrong. Decision paralysis. Creative thinking shrinking to the edges. People becoming reactive or withdrawn, not because they didn’t care, but because their nervous systems were working overtime just to get through the day.
I recognised these patterns in myself too. My shoulders were tight. My sleep became restless. I lost access to the part of me that could imagine something different. Looking back, none of this was personal or about individual weakness. It was a physiological response to working inside systems that demanded more than a human body could reasonably sustain.
This was one of the experiences that shaped my work today. It helped me see that so much of what we describe as workplace dysfunction or lack of resilience is, in truth, the consequence of nervous systems under strain. When the conditions don’t support regulation, creativity and collaboration fade. The body always tells the story before the mind catches up.
3. Collaboration is physiological
We often talk about collaboration as a skill or a mindset. But in practice, collaboration is a physiological event. Our nervous systems continuously read each other. Tone, pacing, timing, posture, silence. When teams are overwhelmed, this attunement collapses. People misread cues. They lose generosity. They default to defensive patterns. Psychological safety erodes.
Regulated teams collaborate. Dysregulated teams coordinate tasks but rarely create anything innovative.
4. Creativity needs spaciousness
Creativity is not a cognitive trick. It is a state of being. Ideas emerge when the body feels safe enough to relax. When design teams operate in a climate of pressure, evaluation and reactivity, imagination shrinks. People cannot access the part of their nervous system required for divergent thinking. We get efficient output, not insight.
5. Systems complexity demands capacity, not speed
Most of the challenges design teams face now are systemic. They involve long timelines, entrenched dynamics and multiple stakeholders. Yet the organisational response is often to push harder and move faster. This mismatch leaves teams overwhelmed because their nervous systems have no time to return to baseline. Capacity reduces. Resilience reduces. Curiosity reduces. People start to feel stretched.
6. Overwhelm is a cultural pattern
Overwhelm is not an individual failure. It is a cultural pattern. When a workplace glorifies speed, constant availability and relentless output, the collective nervous system of the team becomes shaped by urgency. You see more conflict, more reactivity, more misalignment, more burnout. The body tells the truth even when the culture does not.
What design teams actually need
Teams rarely need another productivity tool or new process. They need conditions where their nervous systems can breathe.
They need rhythm and pacing that matches the work.
They need rituals for grounding and orienting.
They need time to settle after intense research blocks.
They need atmospheres that feel safe enough for imagination.
They need leaders who understand the link between physiology and performance.
They need cultures that value recovery as much as delivery.
When teams have this, something shifts. People think more clearly. They collaborate with greater ease. They sense patterns earlier. They navigate complexity with less friction. They imagine again.
Nervous system literacy is not a nice-to-have for design teams. It is essential infrastructure for the kind of work this moment asks of us.
If you’d like some support to begin shifting the conditions for yourself or your team, I’ve created a simple, free resource you’re welcome to download: Somatic Practices for Resilience, with grounding practices to help your system settle and grow your capacity for creativity and collaboration.
And if you’re wanting something more held, I’m offering a 90-minute online workshop, A Grounded Start to 2026, which offers skills, practices and clarity for a more sustainable year. It’s designed to help you begin the year with more capacity, not more pressure.